In rolling mill technology, a type of installation is known in which a roughing pre-strip arriving from the roughing train is wound into a coil in what is known as a coil box and is then unwound for further processing and supplied to a finishing train. A coil box is a strip reeling device that first bends the metal strip arriving from the r train by means of rotationally-driven bending rollers, such that it is wound into a metal coil in a winding cradle formed by support rollers. When the metal coil has been fully wound, the end of the strip becomes the strip head in the subsequent finishing and rolling process. As long as the metal coil is in this winding position, the coil box cannot accept any further strips.
In order to guarantee as large as possible a throughput of material, the unwinding process is already started while the metal coil is still in its winding position. Attempts are made to clear this location as quickly as possible so that the next rough strip approaching can be wound. In order to create this space, a change in the position of the coil is required in the coil box, that is, from the winding position into an unwinding position located in the direction of the finishing train.
Since, by virtue of its temperature, the metal coil in the coil box is easily deformable, the transfer should be done as gently as possible since damage can otherwise occur to the outer layer of the metal coil if the coil is subjected to a hard impact against an abutment, for example.
Document DE 198 03 091 A1 discloses an operating method for a coil transfer device wherein support rollers of a winding and unwinding station are each disposed on moveable frame components that can be moved towards each other and tilted.
In the process, the metal coil, which usually weighs from around 10 to 40 t and is at a relatively high temperature of from around 900° C. to 1100° C., can sustain damage on its outer winding. Part of the outer perimeter then has to be scrapped.